I agree, you should avoid the oily stuff, for the reasons mentioned before...may as well try to keep that grinder component in the best possible condition as long as possible, right? It would probably be worth a little extra effort cleaning it more often than many clean their free standing grinders. Red Bird Espresso and Klatch Roasting WBC (my two main staples) are both roasted to FC+ and do have a very small amount of oil...so, I'd agree with Len to probably stick to FC roasts. Many of the roasters on the HB "list of favorites" ( Click Here (www.home-barista.com) ) list the degree of roast in the coffee decriptions on their website. Knowing what flavor profiles you like and don't like will probably help you as well.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

not to worry with some darker roast on a super auto. I bought 2 different gaggia super autos for my wife to play with, Takes her obsession away from my duetto and hx machines (my babies are safe for now) anyways I havent had a problem with her using darker roast up to but not including French. If the beans get too oily the brew group will fail to tamp beans properly and dump it without pulling a shot but it will only happen once in a while.4 years strong and no pro service needed yet. If you have a super auto with a removable brew group rinse and grease it once a week and you should be fine. most use ceramic burrs like the vario so grinding isnt a problem. she likes beans from barefoot and ritual mostly.I mainly roast my own but it's nice to see some roasters starting to offer greens. great to compare my roast to theirs. My wife seems to like beans with a north Italian roast with the super autos.

Now, thanks to those who took the time to give me actual advice, and I will be pleased to receive more suggestions about coffee blends to use that will taste good and keep my machine working for the longest possible time.

Unfortunately in the superauto world almost mutually exclusive options....you really do need to go darker and like the OP said it's not been my experience that these machines fail substantially faster with darker beans. Eve if they do, better to taste good for a shorter period of time than bad for ages.

My wife told me this morning that how she can tell if a bean is too dark or oily for the supers,if you load the hopper and they wont slide to the grinder throat it's too oily to work good.guess it makes sense.

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